Ollie Marland

I found another great track Wobble did at Guerilla, which gives me a good excuse to write some more about him. For I was thinking about Wobble (as you do) and I had a far distant memory of the first time I saw him, when I was but a lad of 18.

The occasion was a Sex Pistols gig at the 100 Club in May 1976, attended by me and Jo Forty, with whom I had already launched a musical project later to be called The Lines. Like about half the audience at that concert, we were checking out the new gang in town. The other half was mostly the “Bromley Contingent” resplendent in their nascent punk fashions. One man stood out though as being more stylish than the rest, he may have been just a lad himself but it was almost as if Bryan Ferry had decided to join a church youth club. I also noticed that this was the one person in the room to whom John Lydon made a point of paying respect.

I found out who he was when Public Image put out their amazing first two albums, and 10 years later here I was working on this rather excellent track, again with Ollie Marland and Harry Beckett. I suppose I’m the one who should take the blame for the jack hammer snare sound, but that’s just how we rolled in the mid 80s.

In his very readable autobiography Wobble describes the mid 80s as his dark period when the booze took over and his music career suffered. This era ended with him being forced to take a job at Covent Garden underground station.

Well I’m here to tell you all that a lot of good work was done during this time, even as the bourbon bottles were emptied like school milk at playtime. This track is a good example, and I well remember the day Harry Beckett came in to play; as a recorder of sounds, you don’t forget the sweetest ones.

Also Wobble had Ollie Marland, a musician’s musician who could pretty much handle anything you threw at him.

I remember seeing Wobble down at Covent Garden tube, looking cool, holding court, and I knew he wouldn’t be there for long.